chess
[t͡ʃɛs]
The verdict
“chess” is uncommon German (frequency #58,665 among 20,081 “C” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #58,665
- frequency rank, German
- 20,081
- “C” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Schach
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | chess |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | [t͡ʃɛs] |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #58,665 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “chess” sits in German frequency
Rare enough to double-check
chess is uncommon German at frequency #58,665 among 20,081 “C” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed [t͡ʃɛs]. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Schach".
No generated misspelling entries exist for chess in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable German patterns. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct German form is chess, spelled C-H-E-S-S.
Definition
- 1Schach
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 German corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “chess”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct German spelling is C-H-E-S-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [t͡ʃɛs] (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more German words and confusable pairs in the same reference. German words
Other uncommon German words near this rank
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.